Where does Word Study (also known as Word Inquiry or Word Work) fit in a Balanced Approach to Literacy?

What are the Big Ideas about Word Study?

Focus Areas – ‘Big Ideas about Word Study’	Major Teaching Practices	Learning Strategies	Tools
Word meanings Spelling Spelling strategies e.g. chunking, looking for little words in big words, using memory aids Rhyming Phonemic awareness - blending, segmenting, deletion, substitution Phonics e.g. consonants, vowels, blends, digraphs High frequency words/ ‘sight words’ Homophones/homonyms Synonyms/Antonyms Word building – root words etc Over-used words e.g. said, then, nice Compound words Contractions Word families Onset and rhyme Prefixes and suffixes Word origins Syllabification Word fun –playing with words e.g. onomatopoeia, alliteration, Vocabulary Morphology	Phonemic blending, segmenting, deletion, substitution Onset and rhyme Building word families LSCWC (Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check) Mini lessons Group brainstorms/class brainstorms Memorisation of high frequency words e.g. ‘No excuse’ words Anchor charts e.g. what can I do when I don’t know how to spell a word? Class and group sorts – picture sorts, word sorts	Letter/word manipulation Word scramble ‘Word of the day’, ‘Word of the week’ Print walks ‘Have a go’ Identifying interesting words in context Word sorts/letter sorts – open, closed, peer and blind sorts Word banks Letter search/sound search Elkonin boxes Word games/spelling games e.g. hangman	Flash cards Small whiteboards with magnetic letters Letter tiles Pipe cleaners, playdough, flour, sand trays Word walls Dictionaries (personal, commercial) Thesauruses Spelling journals or logs/ spelling notebooks or folders Envelopes/pouches for word sorts ‘Have a go’ cards/books Commercial or teacher made spelling cards and games Online spelling programs e.g. Spelling City, Spellodrome ‘Words Their Way’ materials

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Where does Word Study (also known as Word Inquiry or Word Work) fit in a Balanced Approach to Literacy?